Bengals roster breakdown is back! During the 99 days leading up to Cincinnati’s regular season opener against the Cleveland Browns, the player with the matching jersey number as days remaining will become the day’s highlighted player.
98 days remain until the Bengals’ first game of the 2025 season, so No. 98 T.J. Slaton Jr. is next up.
T.J. Slaton Jr.
- Age:Â 27
- Year:Â 5th
- Position:Â Defensive tackle
- College:Â Florida
- Previous Teams:Â Green Bay Packers
- Jersey Number:Â 98
Slaton enters his fifth season in the NFL and first with the Bengals after being drafted 173rd overall in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He’s played in all 17 games in each of his first four seasons, all with the Packers. His first year as a full-time starter came in 2023 when he recorded a career-high 50 total tackles and two tackles for loss.
Green Bay changed defenses in 2024 and Slaton’s effectiveness in a new scheme wasn’t quite the same. Part of the change involved the Packers moving on from defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, whom the Bengals hired this offseason. Signing Slaton reunites the nose tackle with his coach during the first three years of his career.
Contract details
Slaton is in the first year of his two-year, $14.1 million contract. He earned a roster bonus of $5 million and will earn a base salary of $2.5 million for the 2025 season. He can earn $100,000 as a workout bonus and up to $340,000 in per game roster bonuses. His potential cash earnings for this year is $7.940 million.
When adding on his roster bonus proration of $2.5 million, Slaton’s salary cap hit for the season will be $5.44 million.
Roster outlook
Slaton signed Cincinnati’s largest external free agent contract this year and will start at nose tackle, a position last year’s defense just never filled properly. The Bengals were putrid stopping the run and were consistently subpar at congesting the point of attack, making everyone’s job on defense harder when the quarterback handed the ball off. Slaton’s main purpose is to eat up blocks inside and free up others to stand ground against one-on-ones, which is what he managed to do well during his last year under Montgomery’s coaching in Green Bay.
Slaton may be the only starter Cincinnati added in free agency this year, but reuniting him in a scheme where he can go to work and make players around him better should prove to be a valuable move.
Projected role: Starting nose tackleÂ
